FACT Magazine The 15 best FACT mixes of 2014 @ Musique Non Stop

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1. The 15 best FACT mixes of 2014
2. Aphex Twin has hired a programmer to make him a unique piece of music software based on mutation
3. Kendrick Lamar: “I’ve seen ghosts and UFOs – they still don’t believe me”
4. Bandcamp sellers must pay tax on European downloads from January 2015
5. Frank Ocean and Lil B are making music together
6. Grab Chicago rapper Lil Herb’s second mixtape Pistol P Project

The 15 best FACT mixes of 2014 Posted: 29 Dec 2014 08:36 AM PST Almost 500 sessions in, if we didn’t think our mix series was the best on the web we wouldn’t run it. 2014 was no different, with some of our all-time favourite FACT mixes arriving from faces both new and old. Finally getting Stephen O’Malley, the brains behind SunnO))), Southern Lord, Khanate and more in for a three-hour session was a coup we’d been after for a long time, while Peanut Butter Wolf approaching us with the idea of a 24-hour Valentine’s Day special was a genuine WTF moment – obviously we bit his hand off, and even having to stay up late uploading the bloody thing didn’t dampen our excitement. Elsewhere, we managed to pull in big names from outside the world of dance music – Damon Albarn, Slowdive, St Vincent and Wild Beasts – and invited the likes of Ikonika back for second sessions. There’s no science to picking our favourites, this is simply a list of the FACT mixes we enjoyed listening to the most. Ask us tomorrow and it could all be different, but for now, these are the year’s best.

Aphex Twin has hired a programmer to make him a unique piece of music software based on mutation Posted: 29 Dec 2014 06:28 AM PST Aphex Twin only gave a handful of interviews around the release of Syro, his first album in 13 years, and the last of that handful has now been made available online. Speaking to German magazine Groove, Aphex responds to a series of 25 questions from former Groove cover artists, including DJ Koze and Ricardo Villalobos. Interesting tidbits from this session for Aphex nerds (though as ever with Aphex, take his answers with a pinch of salt): he claims that the fabled mp3 player that he left on a plane is no joke, and that he “feels really bad about it”, especially given that it had “80 unreleased Squarepusher tracks on it”, and he still has his infamous tank. It’s at his sister’s house in Wales. Elsewhere in the piece, Aphex reveals that the “big face” on Come To Daddy track ‘IZ-US’ is actually his own (“It's my nephew talking to me. He was about four years old or something at the time. I was following him around and trying to get samples and he wouldn't say anything. So I started to make all this stupid faces and that's what he said”) and he’s recently “hired a Chinese programmer to make a music software” for him, which “tak[es] the concept of mutation into music software. You give the program some sounds you made and then it gives you six variations of it and then you choose the one you like most and then it makes another six and it kind of keeps trying to choosing the variations by itself.” “It's a bit like that, but more advanced,” he continues, “but basically it starts with a sound, analyzes it, then does different versions of variations. It randomizes, it compares all of them to the original and then it picks the best one. It sounds totally awesome, but it needs to be tweeaked a little bit. I will continue with this. I have a whole book full of ideas for software and instruments." Oh, and he really likes Sd Laika too. To read the full interview, head here.

Kendrick Lamar: “I’ve seen ghosts and UFOs – they still don’t believe me” Posted: 28 Dec 2014 07:57 PM PST Rappers also reveals he’s “too cheap” to make it rain. Like a true Californian, Kendrick Lamar is adamant that he’s had a few close encounters of the supernatural kind. When he dropped in on JoJo Wright’s radio show earlier this year, he told the host that he’s seen ghosts, spirits and UFOs – but that no one has believed him. “I’ve seen ghosts before, for sure,” he revealed. “I’ve seen UFOs too. I seen that when I was six years old, my mother still don’t believe me. We was in Compton, we was on our little balcony on the stairway, she was sitting, drinking her little champagne or wine, I’ll never forget it. And just a dart, a flash – just ch-ch-ch-ch – not the flash like it’s a shooting star, multiple flashes was in the sky. I’ll never forget that, and that was my encounter, and still to this day, I know there is something else out there. “Man, they still don’t believe me, I hope you’ll be the first to believe me,” he told Wright. Other highlights from the quick-fire question and answer session include his slim cookery repertoire (noodles or cereal) and a diatribe about why short guys “have more character”. He also revealed that he’s never made it rain. “That’s one thing I’ve never done,” he says. “I’m too cheap. I’m the only dude that’ll probably make it rain and then pick it back up.” So far we’ve heard two cuts from his forthcoming follow-up to Good Kid m.a.a.d City, the Isley Brothers-sampling ‘i’ and an as-yet-untitled number he performed on The Colbert Report.

Bandcamp sellers must pay tax on European downloads from January 2015 Posted: 28 Dec 2014 07:55 PM PST Changes in EU law mean anyone selling music downloads from their own site now have to pay tax. From January 1, 2015, all sales of digital downloads in the EU will be subject to VAT. As well as applying to videos and e-books, the sellers most likely to be affected by the new rules are musicians and small labels offering their music online – particularly the burgeoning community of artists on Bandcamp. So if you’re one of the thousands of acts making a bit of pocket money through digital downloads, make sure you’re up on the changes. In short, anyone who sells digital downloads is affected. As musician Steve Lawson has pointed out in a helpful blog post on the issue, the VAT charge is determined by the country the customer is in, not where the seller is based. This means you need to be registered for VAT no matter how much you’re earning from downloads, even if you’re selling music direct from your website. It would seem that the rule is intended to clamp down on tax-dodging heavyweights like Amazon, but it’s likely to have an adverse affects on thousands of small-time sellers too. Initially it was feared that sellers would have to jump through lots of tricky hoops, including the chore of filing quarterly VAT returns, in order to comply with the new rules (the Daily Telegraph has detailed the many drawbacks to the changes). However, an update from Bandcamp has clarified that the site will be doing most of the legwork for sellers. Bandcamp will automatically determine if the buyer is based in an EU country, and if they are, it will calculate the proper VAT amount and add it to the order total. From March 1, 2015, a downloadable VAT report will be available on sellers’ Tools page. To report and pay tax for sales in which VAT was charged, EU-based artists and labels can register for MOSS (or ‘Mini One-Stop Shop’, a website used to report and pay cross-border VAT) in their country. In some countries this might mean becoming VAT registered first. Each quarter, sellers can submit a VAT return using MOSS and pay the tax owed. The Bandcamp VAT report includes all the information needed for the return, including total taxable sales broken down by country, as well as the evidence used to determine the buyer’s location for each sale. “Under our current system, in which buyers pay you directly, the above is the easiest we can make it for sellers to meet their VAT obligations,” notes Bandcamp. “In the first half of 2015, we plan to make payments for digital transactions flow through Bandcamp. Among other advantages, this will allow us to take care of everything related to digital VAT, including tax reporting and payment.” Bandcamp says that if you know you fall below your country’s VAT exemption threshold (£81,000 in the UK), a setting on your Profile page will allow you to disable VAT collection for domestic purchases. This seems logical, and many labels and artists will fall below the threshold. But as the Telegraph reports, the new rule actually means that all tax thresholds have been removed for online businesses – so even selling one item for £1 means you have to register and keep records for VAT. Additionally, UK HMRC has published a flow chart which suggests that downloads sold through a third party marketplace are not eligible for VAT. Their guidance states that “if the platform operator identifies you as the seller but sets the general terms and conditions, or authorises payment, or handles delivery/download of the digital service, the platform is considered to be supplying the consumer. They are therefore responsible for accounting for the VAT payment that is charged to the consumer.” This seems to potentially contradict Bandcamp’s advice, so more clarity is obviously needed here. If you think this affects your Bandcamp enterprise, be sure to read the full update, where you can also find the link for UK MOSS. You should also check out this detailed explanation from Business Matters, which covers methods of claiming your tax back. (Hat tip to @Gacougnol for flagging that up.) The rule change is a blow to Bandcamp, which has become one of the biggest and most artist-friendly music sites around over the past couple of years. In 2014 it introduced subscription services for individual artists, and we like it so much we’ve a whole monthly column devoted to it – check out our favourite Bandcamp releases of 2014.

Frank Ocean and Lil B are making music together Posted: 28 Dec 2014 07:48 PM PST It might not appear like an obvious match, but it appears that R&B crooner Frank Ocean is working on material with Oakland’s very own Based God Lil B. Ocean’s output has been markedly restrained in 2014, but a picture has emerged – on Lil B’s popular Dior Paint Tumblr of course – that shows the two influential artists in the studio together. There’s no word on what the collaboration might entail, but Lil B captioned the picture with the typically-excitable statement “RARE photo of LIL B x FRANK OCEAN IN THE STUDIO TOGETHER!! NEW MUSIC COMING SOON! Collect this! – Lil B.” Lil B’s had a corker of a year so far with a handful of unexpectedly killer mixtapes, while Frank Ocean re-emerged in November with ‘Memrise‘. [via AllHipHop]

Grab Chicago rapper Lil Herb’s second mixtape Pistol P Project Posted: 28 Dec 2014 07:00 PM PST Lil Bibby’s sparring partner is back with a follow-up to Welcome To Fazoland. Chicago rapper Lil Herb made a big impression on us with his debut solo mixtape back in February, a set of gloomy street tales illustrated with a lyrical deftness that stood out from the crowd. His follow-up is Pistol P Project, which wins points from the off by being a concise 10 tracks in length. Featured artists include Katie Got Bandz, Zuse and Jace, while production comes from Childish Major, DJ Fu, Mekanikz and more. Stream or download in the player below and catch up with Herb and Bibby’s essential joint tape Heir Apparents.